Glue

Just when you thought the “pink slime” controversy was in the past and that the discovery of mad-cow disease had blown over, the forces that be now bring yet another cause for carnivore concern: calls for an investigation into 'meat glue.' Officially, it's known as transglutaminase, an enzyme in powder form that brings protein closer together - permanently. Occasionally, the so-called reformed meat is served up by food suppliers, restaurants and others who use it to patch various pieces of meat into a single steak or some other amalgamated chunk.

January 10, 2014 | Amina Khan, This story has been updated, as indicated below.

Sometimes, it takes worm glue to fix the hole in a heart. Inspired by creepy crawly creatures like the slug and the sandcastle worm, a team of scientists has created a surgical adhesive that could safely seal up the hearts of babies born with congenital heart defects. The bioinspired glue, described in Science Translational Medicine, could replace damaging staples, weak or toxic glues and reduce the need for repeated surgeries, said study coauthor Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

The American Meat Institute is striking back at reports that “meat glue,” a binding agent often used to patch together pieces of beef and other protein, is unsafe and unnatural. In an occasionally touchy conference call Thursday, the trade group said that the USDA considers such substances to be safe and requires its presence to be noted on retail labels. The product, however, isn't always disclosed when it's served at restaurants and other food service outlets, experts said.

January 10, 2014 | Amina Khan, This story has been updated, as indicated below.

Sometimes, it takes worm glue to fix the hole in a heart. Inspired by creepy crawly creatures like the slug and the sandcastle worm, a team of scientists has created a surgical adhesive that could safely seal up the hearts of babies born with congenital heart defects. The bioinspired glue, described in Science Translational Medicine, could replace damaging staples, weak or toxic glues and reduce the need for repeated surgeries, said study coauthor Jeffrey Karp, a bioengineer at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Dollar Tree Stores Inc. is recalling about 253,000 Chinese-made glue guns because they can short-circuit, causing them to smoke and catch fire. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Dollar Tree was aware of seven incidents in which the glue guns short-circuited, including two injuries involving electrical shock and burns. The Crafters Square hot melt mini-glue guns were sold at Dollar Tree, Dollar Bill$, Dollar Express, Greenbacks, Only One $1, and Deal$ stores from February through August 2007, the commission said.

A new type of dry glue designed to mimic gecko feet is 10 times stickier than the gravity-defying lizards and three times stickier than similar glues, U.S. researchers said Thursday. A 1-inch square can support a 220-pound man climbing up a vertical surface, but it can be easily lifted and reapplied, the researchers reported in the journal Science. Like other gecko-inspired glues, the new glue uses a carpet of carbon nanotubes, thin filaments of carbon molecules. But attached to the ends of these filaments are curly strands of carbon that expand the surface area of the glue's gripping action.

Doctors may soon try a modified version of Super Glue as a painless way to close wounds instead of using heavy, scar-prone stitches or staples. During an FDA meeting in Gaithersburg, scientific advisors recommended that the government approve the nation's first surgical glue. DermaBond, made by the Raleigh, N.C.-based Closure Medical Corp., takes far less time to apply than it takes to stitch wounds and doesn't require a repeat visit to remove sutures.

The Food and Drug Administration approved a Super Glue-like substance Thursday for doctors to use in place of stitches on skin-deep wounds. Closure Medical Corp.'s DermaBond contains a variation of the chemical used in Super Glue. It quickly covers a wound with a flexible film that gradually wears off as new skin cells grow beneath it. DermaBond takes half as much time to apply as sutures and, because it's less painful, doesn't require a local anesthetic, said Closure, based in Raleigh, N.C.

A new glue made of human blood by-products could replace stitches and surgical staples in some delicate operations and be used like a caulking agent on leaky blood vessels, University of Pennsylvania researchers say. Dr. Robert Weisman said he and colleagues have worked on developing such a glue for seven years. The substance is made from clotting agents derived from the patient's own blood. "There are operations where it's just too difficult to use sutures or wires," he said.

Barry Bonds' home run record has been removed ... not from the record books, like many people have wished, but from the walls of the San Francisco Giants' ballpark in San Francisco. The commemorative plaque honoring Bonds' record-setting 756th home run has disappeared from the right-center brick facade in AT&T Park, where it has hung since the start of the 2008 season. No one seems to know exactly what happened to it. Giants spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said Tuesday night that the team is conducting an investigation as to where the hardware may be. “We're not sure what happened," she said.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Orlando Gonzalez said he remembers meeting the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in the white hat about four months ago. "I think he came over here and bought glue," said Gonzalez, 38, who works at a City Paint store in Cambridge. He watched through a store window Friday as police blocked off nearby streets and SWAT teams wielding long guns patrolled the streets. He said he didn't remember the man that the FBI has identified as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, until he saw his photos at a televised FBI press conference and again from a reporter outside his store Friday morning.

The Dodgers will start their season Monday with a record payroll of $230 million. But when they take the field at Dodger Stadium to face the San Francisco Giants, they are expected to do so with a shortstop earning $494,000. For all the money the Dodgers have spent in the last year adding star attractions such as Adrian Gonzalez and Zack Greinke, they will be depending on unheralded players at some key positions - Justin Sellers at shortstop, Luis Cruz at third base, Mark Ellis at second base and A.J. Ellis at catcher.

The most curious NFL news Sunday was that the league is investigating the San Diego Chargers for using Stick 'em, the glue-like goop that helps players hang on to the football. The Fox report said an equipment manager was concealing the substance on hand towels. So the Chargers couldn't throw in the towel if they wanted to - and neither could these players and teams on a gripping Sunday: •Tennessee's Chris Johnson, the onetime rushing champion who hadn't scored a touchdown in 10 games, broke loose for 195 yards and two scores in the Titans' 35-34 thriller over Buffalo.

"What's on?" used to be an easy question to answer -- all you had to do was look at a TV program guide and scroll through the channels. Now, however, television programs are being delivered not only by hundreds of broadcast and cable networks, but also by websites and services whose inventory is available on demand. It used to seem as if reruns of the "Law & Order" franchise were always on, somewhere on the dial; these days it's literally true. Dozens of companies are now offering program guides for the online-TV era, replacing the familiar two-dimensional list of shows -- channels listed in rows, times across the top -- with something more personalized and interactive.

The American Meat Institute is striking back at reports that “meat glue,” a binding agent often used to patch together pieces of beef and other protein, is unsafe and unnatural. In an occasionally touchy conference call Thursday, the trade group said that the USDA considers such substances to be safe and requires its presence to be noted on retail labels. The product, however, isn't always disclosed when it's served at restaurants and other food service outlets, experts said.

A clotting substance extracted from a patient's blood can be used as a natural glue to close some surgical incisions, and it eventually might offer a new way to stop bleeding during operations, a Los Angeles physician reports. In a letter to the Journal of the American Medical Assn. last week, Dr. Mark A. Mandel said he had successfully used a spray of a patient's fibrinogen to replace most of the sutures that would have been needed to close the incisions of an eyelid lift.

A faint crackling sound broke the silence inside the crowded workshop at Cal State Long Beach, and with it the dreams of a first-place title dissipated for students of Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School. It took less than a minute to destroy the handcrafted bridge that the team of four had spent months constructing out of Popsicle sticks. But under the crushing pressure of 755 pounds, the bridge buckled. The students from the Boyle Heights campus had a lot to prove.

Just when you thought the “pink slime” controversy was in the past and that the discovery of mad-cow disease had blown over, the forces that be now bring yet another cause for carnivore concern: calls for an investigation into 'meat glue.' Officially, it's known as transglutaminase, an enzyme in powder form that brings protein closer together - permanently. Occasionally, the so-called reformed meat is served up by food suppliers, restaurants and others who use it to patch various pieces of meat into a single steak or some other amalgamated chunk.

A faint crackling sound broke the silence inside the crowded workshop at Cal State Long Beach, and with it the dreams of a first-place title dissipated for students of Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School. It took less than a minute to destroy the handcrafted bridge that the team of four had spent months constructing out of Popsicle sticks. But under the crushing pressure of 755 pounds, the bridge buckled. The students from the Boyle Heights campus had a lot to prove.